Forging the Future of LAFD
A year into her role as fire chief for the Los Angeles Fire Department—the first woman in its history—Kristin Crowley ’93 is just getting started.
By Wendy Wilson from Courier Summer 2023
There are throughlines from Kristin Crowley’s time as a student-athlete to her role as fire chief of the city of Los Angeles.
“I go back to the privileges that were granted to me on the front end by going to a school like Saint Mary’s,” she says when describing her path to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). “My family life, the support that I had, the drive on the athletics side, the competitiveness—all of it—prepared me for, I think, whatever I decided to put my mind to.”
Her swearing-in as the first female fire chief on March 25, 2022, was a watershed in the department’s 137-year history, a public demonstration of LAFD’s commitment to change. Longstanding concerns about the treatment of women and minorities in the workplace, combined with mounting pressure to reimagine the department in ways to better reflect the community’s greater need for assistance with medical emergencies rather than fires, created an opportunity for the department to revisit its mission and chart a new course for its 3,600 employees.
A year later, Crowley says the work is just getting underway.
“What I’ve learned throughout the years is, especially when you’re in a position of impact and influence, you have to be very mindful about the pace of change, that we’re bringing everybody along with us when we are really starting to turn the culture, to turn how we do things, and evolve as an organization,” she shares. “I’ve got a vision of where we want to go. But what are the steps of how we get there? And how do I empower my people to get us there? That’s the big picture of what I need to do as the fire chief.”
Finding a Home in Fire
Her plan had never been to fight fires, but to study medicine: Crowley was going to become a doctor. Raised five hours away from Saint Mary’s in Green Bay, Wisconsin, she chose to attend the College because of the balance it offered (balance, she will tell you, is one of her favorite words) between strong academics and the prospect of continuing to compete in some capacity as an athlete.
“That was my decision, the best decision I’ve ever made,” she affirms. “I left Saint Mary’s feeling, legitimately, no matter what I put my mind to, I could achieve. That’s a combination of how I was raised, [but] a big piece of that was also my experience at Saint Mary’s.”
Shortly after graduation, she moved to Los Angeles, enrolled in paramedic school, and began studying to take the MCAT. But as her training as a paramedic progressed and “rideouts” began—shifts spent in the company of practicing emergency responders—she and her classmates were given a bit of freedom to choose where they spent their time in the field. There were various agencies with which the students could gain experience, even some private ambulance companies that collaborated to provide hands-on learning opportunities. But when her class was told they’d been offered the chance to work alongside LAFD, no one was interested.
“The word on the street was, ‘You don’t want to go to LA City [LAFD], they don’t treat their paramedics very well,” she remembers. “So you didn’t want to go there, especially as a female candidate or a female paramedic intern. And you know what? That intrigued me. I was the only one to raise my hand in our entire class full of my male counterparts and say, ‘Yeah, I want to go to LA City.’”
The rest of the story is simple: “The instructor said, ‘Are you sure?’ and I said yes.”
Chief Crowley knew she was home within a half hour of arriving at her first firehouse on the rideout. She was struck by the professionalism she saw from the moment introductions were exchanged and surprised by a welcome sense of familiarity. An athlete throughout her academic career—three sports in high school, soccer and basketball during her time at Saint Mary’s—Crowley had missed the healthy competition and sense of camaraderie that she now found in the firehouse.
“It was pretty much right in alignment with my life trajectory,” she says. “Not that I wouldn’t have been completely happy being an orthopedic surgeon. I think that that would have been a fantastic career. But when it came down to those extra pieces—how I felt when I was in the fire station and running 911 calls was what tipped the scales for me.”
I left Saint Mary's feeling, legitimately, no matter what I put my mind to, I could achieve.
– Kristin Crowley '93
LAFD Fire Chief
A Trailblazer Tasked with Systemic Change
When Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti nominated Crowley to become the 19th fire chief in department history, the expectations were two-fold: she would lead the department’s work on behalf of the city while also shaping a change in workplace culture dogged by allegations of bullying and discrimination. In the months leading up to the announcement of Crowley’s endorsement, a poll of 1,200 firefighters and civilians employed by the LAFD attempted to quantify concerns about sexism and racism and department morale. The results compiled by independent consulting firm Deloitte were stark: departmental bullying and harassment were named as problems by 56% of female firefighters, compared with just 19% of males. For employees of color across genders, the percentage of respondents pointing to harassment as a problem emerged worryingly at 41%. An overwhelming 70% lacked confidence in department leadership.
But on the day Crowley stepped into the breach so unsparingly illuminated by the collected responses of the department, she spoke of “the goodness of what everybody brings to work each and every day.” Joined by her wife Hollyn Bullock and their three daughters on the day of her swearing-in, she acknowledged the honor it would be for her to advance that virtue within the organization. The troubling assessment of workplace culture notwithstanding, Crowley spoke from her own experience: she knew no small amount about the great goodness of the LAFD. In a nearly 25-year career, she’d held practically every job at every level of the department and had done so as a woman, and it is this perspective through which she shapes change within the department.
“That’s the evolution and the growth I’m hoping to bring with my administration: where, with everything we do, we create that space to bring equity across the board with all members within our department,” she says. “I think that’s where we have fallen short over our past 137 years, and that [is how we] will then create a shift in the culture of how we treat one another in the fire stations, and how we treat one another when we’re out providing service to the communities of LA.”
In addition to concerns about its workplace culture, the LAFD is struggling with an organizational identity crisis. The reality of the work being done by firefighters across the city no longer aligns with the perception of what the department’s name signifies in the minds of internal and external constituencies alike: most of the work being done by first responders doesn’t involve fighting fires.
While the need for LAFD services continues to rise—in 2021, the department’s nearly half million calls for fire and emergency medical services was up 7% from the previous year—81% were for EMS needs, not fire.
Breaking to Rebuild
Crowley has served as a department “first” in several ways. Before becoming the first female chief in LAFD history, she was its first-ever female fire marshal and only the second to be elevated to the position of chief deputy. She is the only member of the LGBTQ+ community to lead the organization. But her distinction as the first paramedic charged with reshaping the direction of the department is a signal fire of its own, a beacon for where it is headed.
“The goal is to fracture that status we’ve held, organizationally, as this hardcore, traditional fire service, that all we do is fire,” she says. “We run over 1,500 incidents a day, transport over 600 patients a day to the hospital, and now 85 to 87% of that is EMS-related. So we have to have a different mindset and evolve.”
Now a year into her tenure, Chief Crowley and her team are preparing to unveil a three-year strategic plan to help the department implement essential changes. The initiative is only the third of its kind in LAFD history. (Crowley also participated in the development of the second, a roadmap that provided guidance from 2017-20). Of the seven goals articulated in the latest iteration, one focuses on improving the workplace environment, specifically stating LAFD is committed to an organizational culture that embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion. Crowley said this objective is supported by many strategies and tactics in use by the department now—and maintained going forward—in its ongoing efforts to address those issues, but with an “equity lens.” Among these efforts: a diversity, equity, and inclusion bureau launched under her leadership in January, another first in department history.
Collaboration with staff and community partners was integral to the creation of the new strategic plan. Crowley said the better part of the last year included purposeful communication with sworn and civilian stakeholders within the department as well as neighborhood councils around Los Angeles to gather information and build a consensus in support of the department’s work.
“It’s one thing to have a plan, [but] it’s another thing to manage it with leadership and measurement,” she reflects. “So that’s what I’m excited about.”
And she believes direct communication with those she serves is the best way to continue to promote a broad understanding of the changes her administration is implementing. To that end, the department instituted “Chats With the Fire Chief” earlier this year, a series of monthly webinars focusing on a relevant topic while creating an open channel for conversation between employees at every level and herself.
“I’m not going to understand what the members of the fire department on the sworn and civilian sides need unless I create those bridges and identify the gaps in communication,” she says.
“A project of love”
Perhaps the best indicator of Crowley’s chances of realizing institutional change for the department can be found in the success of the work she’s already done. Noe Anthony Lopez II, a 24-year-old firefighter and paramedic now assigned to LAFD’s Fire Station 20, can attest to the impact of some of Crowley’s earlier efforts. Lopez is a product of the LAFD Cadet program, a pre-employment path for youth that provides an opportunity for the department to identify and cultivate talent. Crowley was instrumental in serving as a leader for the initiative, an effort responsible for training more than 1,000 area students in firefighting basics with a focus on character development. It was through the Cadet initiative that Lopez began volunteering with the department at age 14; it was also how he met Crowley for the first time, then a captain within the department.
“I had a very clear understanding of the type of person she was,” Lopez remembered. “She was very giving. She cared not only for the department, but also just the community in general. I could see hers is definitely a project of love.”
Crowley remained a resource to Lopez even after becoming fire marshal. When he emailed her in 2019 seeking interviewing advice, she made room in her day to meet with him at City Hall. “I’m forever thankful to her just in my specific personal process,” he says, “but I know the person that she is, and I’m sure there’s a number of other people who are [thankful], too. The youth programs were one of the main things—one of the many projects—she put all of her time and energy into. It has touched so many lives. There’s like hundreds of cadets that have been out there. She influenced and created these avenues for all the communities of Los Angeles, from the valley to downtown to the harbor, she’s given us these avenues—and I can only speak for the youth programs.”
The son of a 25-year veteran of the department, Lopez grew up in and around the fire stations to which his father was assigned, and so he experiences the LAFD with fresh eyes while carrying stories of what came before.
“To be honest, we do have our challenges and issues as a department. We’re not perfect, you know? But I think she’s doing a lot to work toward addressing those, and it makes me hopeful,” he says of Crowley’s first year. “Even now, I think of the way that she holds herself and juggles all those issues and remains professional, even through all the gripes and complaints. It just makes me very happy to have her as chief.”
Making the Grade
Eventually, Crowley hopes the reputation of the organization will be burnished to a shine, so much so that its light will serve to attract aspiring paramedics like she once was. In this way, the department could grow its workforce appropriately because the community would know “at LAFD, they treat people right.” She says the department is currently revisiting the existing hiring policy that requires new recruits complete training as firefighters before they can become paramedics.
“I’m trying to build this momentum, to bring balance in regard to what we do organizationally, that as we’re onboarding the next generation of firefighters, we’re also onboarding a different mindset
that brings value to what we do 85% of the time.”
Evaluating the department’s progress on her watch, Crowley sounds like the basketball player she was at Saint Mary’s 30 years ago. She speaks of continuing to control the pace of the change she’s been charged to deliver. And while she concedes that pace can become frustrating, it is a priority for her to manage it to ensure the best results for LAFD employees, both civilian and sworn.
“There’s always room to improve, always room to take a big step back,” she reflects. “I feel like we’re making some really good progress, though. But you know, honestly, to ask what grade would I give myself?”
She gives a small shake of her head. “It doesn’t matter how I grade myself. You’ve got to ask the members of the LAFD.”
